If necessary, you can review the the IPlan Assignment sheet here. Complete the process shown in the diagram below by following the steps and answering the questions for each step.
a. Review your journal entries RJ1 and RJ3 for your original assessment of your needs and strengths as well as the needs of your students.
b. Complete the Teaching Self Assessment based on one of the lessons you taught last week. Be sure to write down specific evidence from either your lesson plan or your memory of your enactment for each assessment you give. Use a highlighter to identify areas of your teaching/lesson that were either below standard or that you feel needs improvement.
a. Review your school improvement document(s). (If you forgot them, download a SALT visit.)
b. Synthesize your review by completing the following table as best your can:
What is the need?
How will improvement help your students?
How will improvement help your school?
RIBT Standard/Element Addressed?
1.
Students need to engage in more activities that guide them to higher level thinking that extends beyond information retrieval.
Students will be able to process and pull the larger idea from lesson rather then just the facts that they can memorize.
Develop questioning techniques that encourage higher order thinking skills.
5.1: extend beyond factual recall and 5.4 : engage students in generating knowledge.
2.
3.
4.
Formulate a professional development goal based the needs that you have identified. This goal should be:
measurable/observable
should lead to improvement of teaching, student achievement, and/or improvement of learning environment.
should describe new knowledge or skills that you will acquire and how that knowledge/skill will affect the school/district setting.
linked to applicable Rhode Island Beginning Teacher Standards and elements, e.g. RIBTS 2.4.
In the space below, describe your professional development goal. In a second paragraph, use the information above to provide a rationale for your goal by explaining the personal need that it will address as well as how addressing this goal benefits your students and your school.
I. Professional Development Goal
In order to keep building and making myself better teacher I feel as though working on lesson that have a level of higher level thinking is extremely important. I would like to take those lesson that I have made and modify them to have the students reach that higher level of understanding and thinking. In order to do this I feel as though it would be to my benefit to seek the help of outside sources and experts on this matter. I feel as though my students have that difficulty of taking the material they learn and putting it all together to make one big connection. I feel like having a strong base of facilitating students through this process is extremely important. Having student be able to connect ideas from lesson to lesson and take their thinking to a higher level through out their time with me is a goal of mine. In order to try and achieve this goal I must first make certain that I have made lessons that allow for higher level thinking. In order to do this I will look to attend workshops that train teachers to use inquiry based curriculum in my classroom. I have looked into such workshops as those put on by the GLOBE program and American Educational Research Association Meetings at George Washington University.
Bringing in curriculum that is rich in inquiry and higher level thinking allows student to use critical thinking to solve problems. According to the RIBTS 5.1 students need "lessons that extend beyond factual recall and challenge students to develop higher level cognitive skills." Coming up with lessons that entail these characteristics is extremely important to students at the current middle school that I am student teaching at. In the SALT survey done by the school, one recommendation was "Develop questioning techniques that encourage higher order thinking skills." Attending workshops and meetings like the examples mentioned earlier will help to develop lessons that are rich in higher level thinking and inquiry. They will also help students to generate knowledge on their own by exploration and experience. This is addressed in RIBTS 5.4, which states "Engage students in generating knowledge, testing hypothesis, and exploring methods of inquiry and standards of evidence." Inquiry in the classroom is such an important facet to higher level thinking therefore it is extremely important that our lessons include some type of inquiry based learning. RIBTS 5.5 says "Using tasks that engage students in exploration, discovery, and hands-on activities". Having all three of these RIBTS present in your classroom will force the students in the classroom to reach that higher level thinking. Furthering my education will in turn further my student learning.
Now that you have a PD goal, think about what type of learning opportunities you will participate in to address your needs. Use these links to investigate learning options:
Based on what you have found out, write a 1-2 paragraph narrative outlining at least two ways (PD categories) you will engage in engage in by the end of your first year of teaching. For each activity, explain how you think it will address the need that you have identified.
II. Professional Development Plan
In order to have lessons that include higher level thinking and inquiry based thought I have found a couple different things that I can do to learn more about developing these types of lessons. Attending different workshops and meetings can be a great tool. It can be helpful in getting ideas for lessons and learn how to assess inquiry, which is also extremely important and difficult. Workshops like the ones put on by the GLOBE program which is huge on inquiry based learning. The important thing is taking ideas away from this workshop and actually implementing them into the classroom.Although there are no GLOBE workshops planned for this summer the site said that they are not all planned yet and will be putting more up all the time. I plan to keep my eyes open and if I can get the chance possibly go down to Texas this summer to attend one.
Another great opportunity to learn more great skills is to attend the 2008 NSTA National Conference this Spring in Boston. The conference will be held March 28 - 30. Its theme this year is "Bridge to the Future" and the plan is to teach classroom teachers the latest content in science. If I were unable to go to this NSTA has the learning center which has classes that can be taken online. The National Science Teacher Association is extremely helpful in trying to help further the knowledge of teachers.
EDC 484 IPlan Synthesis
If necessary, you can review the the IPlan Assignment sheet here. Complete the process shown in the diagram below by following the steps and answering the questions for each step.
a. Review your journal entries RJ1 and RJ3 for your original assessment of your needs and strengths as well as the needs of your students.
b. Complete the Teaching Self Assessment based on one of the lessons you taught last week. Be sure to write down specific evidence from either your lesson plan or your memory of your enactment for each assessment you give. Use a highlighter to identify areas of your teaching/lesson that were either below standard or that you feel needs improvement.
a. Review your school improvement document(s). (If you forgot them, download a SALT visit.)
b. Synthesize your review by completing the following table as best your can:
Formulate a professional development goal based the needs that you have identified. This goal should be:
In the space below, describe your professional development goal. In a second paragraph, use the information above to provide a rationale for your goal by explaining the personal need that it will address as well as how addressing this goal benefits your students and your school.
I. Professional Development Goal
In order to keep building and making myself better teacher I feel as though working on lesson that have a level of higher level thinking is extremely important. I would like to take those lesson that I have made and modify them to have the students reach that higher level of understanding and thinking. In order to do this I feel as though it would be to my benefit to seek the help of outside sources and experts on this matter. I feel as though my students have that difficulty of taking the material they learn and putting it all together to make one big connection. I feel like having a strong base of facilitating students through this process is extremely important. Having student be able to connect ideas from lesson to lesson and take their thinking to a higher level through out their time with me is a goal of mine. In order to try and achieve this goal I must first make certain that I have made lessons that allow for higher level thinking. In order to do this I will look to attend workshops that train teachers to use inquiry based curriculum in my classroom. I have looked into such workshops as those put on by the GLOBE program and American Educational Research Association Meetings at George Washington University.
Bringing in curriculum that is rich in inquiry and higher level thinking allows student to use critical thinking to solve problems. According to the RIBTS 5.1 students need "lessons that extend beyond factual recall and challenge students to develop higher level cognitive skills." Coming up with lessons that entail these characteristics is extremely important to students at the current middle school that I am student teaching at. In the SALT survey done by the school, one recommendation was "Develop questioning techniques that encourage higher order thinking skills." Attending workshops and meetings like the examples mentioned earlier will help to develop lessons that are rich in higher level thinking and inquiry. They will also help students to generate knowledge on their own by exploration and experience. This is addressed in RIBTS 5.4, which states "Engage students in generating knowledge, testing hypothesis, and exploring methods of inquiry and standards of evidence." Inquiry in the classroom is such an important facet to higher level thinking therefore it is extremely important that our lessons include some type of inquiry based learning. RIBTS 5.5 says "Using tasks that engage students in exploration, discovery, and hands-on activities". Having all three of these RIBTS present in your classroom will force the students in the classroom to reach that higher level thinking. Furthering my education will in turn further my student learning.
Now that you have a PD goal, think about what type of learning opportunities you will participate in to address your needs. Use these links to investigate learning options:
Based on what you have found out, write a 1-2 paragraph narrative outlining at least two ways (PD categories) you will engage in engage in by the end of your first year of teaching. For each activity, explain how you think it will address the need that you have identified.
II. Professional Development Plan
In order to have lessons that include higher level thinking and inquiry based thought I have found a couple different things that I can do to learn more about developing these types of lessons. Attending different workshops and meetings can be a great tool. It can be helpful in getting ideas for lessons and learn how to assess inquiry, which is also extremely important and difficult. Workshops like the ones put on by the GLOBE program which is huge on inquiry based learning. The important thing is taking ideas away from this workshop and actually implementing them into the classroom.Although there are no GLOBE workshops planned for this summer the site said that they are not all planned yet and will be putting more up all the time. I plan to keep my eyes open and if I can get the chance possibly go down to Texas this summer to attend one.
Another great opportunity to learn more great skills is to attend the 2008 NSTA National Conference this Spring in Boston. The conference will be held March 28 - 30. Its theme this year is "Bridge to the Future" and the plan is to teach classroom teachers the latest content in science. If I were unable to go to this NSTA has the learning center which has classes that can be taken online. The National Science Teacher Association is extremely helpful in trying to help further the knowledge of teachers.
Post your PD Plan to True Outcomes